It's official! KDE 2.0 has been released! Run, don't walk, to your nearest mirror or go directly to the source.
The full press release is below.

DATELINE OCTOBER 23, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New KDE Release Is a Major Advance for Linux®
Desktop

Next Generation of Leading Desktop for Linux®
and Other UNIXes® Ships

October 23, 2000 (The INTERNET). The KDE
Team today announced the release of KDE 2.0 (named Kopernicus),
KDE's powerful, modular, Internet-enabled desktop. This highly anticipated
release constitutes the next generation of theaward-winning KDE 1
series, which culminated in therelease of
KDE 1.1.2 just over a year ago. Kopernicus is the work product
of hundreds of dedicated developers originating from over 30 countries.

"With the experience gained from developing KDE 1, we
almost completely re-engineered KDE 2 to make it even more intuitive,
powerful and user friendly," explainedMatthias Ettrich,
founder of the KDE project.
"We think that current KDE users will be pleasantly surprised with the
remarkable improvements we have achieved. KDE 2 offers
the desktop user the benefit of standards compliance and an array of
new technologies, fromKonqueror, a full featured web browser and
file manager, to KOffice, an integrated
office suite, as well as a slew of usability enhancements, such as KDE's
expanded themeability and configurability and a new KDE Help Center.
It also offers developers an assortment of powerful new tools -- fromKParts, KDE's component object technology,
to KIO, KDE's network transparent I/O architecture
-- for rapid development and deployment of first-rate free or
proprietary software."

"KDE 2.0 is an important release," stated Ransom Love, president and
CEO of Caldera Systems, Inc.
"Our customers are anxious to migrate not only their servers but also
their desktops to the Linux technology. KDE 2.0 will be a key component
of OpenLinux eDesktop, our solution for a seamless and cost-effective
transition strategy."

"SuSE Linux views KDE 2 as one of
the key milestones to vault Linux to the same landslide success on the
desktop that it already has in the server space," added Dirk Hohndel,
CTO of Suse AG. "We are excited to
be able to offer KDE 2.0 as the
default desktop with our next version of the SuSE Linux OS. I am
confident that third party developers will realize the enormous
potential KDE 2 offers and will migrate their applications
to Linux/KDE."

"As Linux-Mandrake focuses on making Linux easy to use, we are very
pleased to include KDE 2, a major evolution of the already superb KDE 1,
in our upcoming Linux-Mandrake 7.2 release", addedGaël Duval,
co-founder of Mandrakesoft.
"With KDE 2 and KOffice, the KDE team demonstrates again their deep
commitment to make Linux a viable desktop alternative for all users."

"Corel has had a long, successful relationship with the KDE project, and
the release of KDE 2.0 is an important milestone for Linux," said Rene
Schmidt, Executive Vice President for Linux Products,Corel Corporation.
"We believe that our customers will be ecstatic over the improvements
and new features of this landmark version. The enhancements to the
framework provide power for the desktop in the simple and elegant
fashion that our customers have grown to expect."

Kopernicus includes the core KDE libraries,
the core desktop environment, the initial release of the KOffice suite, as well
as the over 100 applications from the other standard base KDE packages:
Administration, Games,
Graphics, Multimedia, Network, Personal Information Management (PIM),
Toys and Utilities. Kopernicus is currently available in 15 languages
and translations into 20 additional languages will be available in the
coming weeks.

KDE 2: The K Desktop Environment.Konqueror
is KDE 2's next-generation web browser,
file manager and document viewer. Widely heralded as a
technological break-through for the Linux desktop, the standards-compliant
Konqueror has a component-based architecture which combines the features and
functionality of Internet Explorer®/Netscape
Communicator® and Windows Explorer®.
Konqueror will support the full gamut of current Internet technologies,
including JavaScript, Java®, HTML 4.0, CSS-1 and -2
(Cascading Style Sheets), SSL (Secure Socket Layer for secure communications)
and Netscape Communicator® plug-ins (for
playing FlashTM, RealAudioTM, RealVideoTM
and similar technologies). The great bulk of this technology is already
in place and functional for KDE 2.0.

KDE 2 also ships with the highly anticipated initial release ofthe KOffice
suite. The integrated
suite consists of a spreadsheet application (KSpread), a vector drawing
application (KIllustrator), a frame-based word-processing application
(KWord), a presentation program
(KPresenter), and a chart and diagram application (KChart). Native file
formats are XML-based, and work on filters for proprietary binary file
formats is progressing. Combined with a powerful scripting language and the
ability to embed individuals components within each other using KDE's
component technology (KParts), the free KOffice suite will soon provide
all the necessary functionality to all but the most demanding power users.

In addition, KIO's network transparency offers
seamless support for accessing
or browsing files on Linux, NFS shares, MS Windows®
SMB shares, HTTP pages, FTP directories and LDAP directories. The modular,
plug-in nature of KDE's file architecture makes it simple to add additional
protocols (such as IPX or WebDAV) to KDE, which would then automatically be
available to all KDE applications.

KDE 2 introduces a new multimedia architecture based on aRts, the Analog Realtime Synthesizer. ARts enables
playing multiple audio or video streams concurrently, whether on the
desktop or over a network. ARts is a full-featured sound system, and
includes filters, a modular analog synthesizer and a mixer. Its
architecture allows developers to create additional filter plugins and
users to apply sequences of filters using a graphical drag-n-drop
approach. Video support is available for MPEG versions
1, 2 and 4 (experimental), as well as the AVI and DivX formats.

KDE's customizability touches every
aspect of this next-generation
desktop. KDE's sophisticated theme support starts with Qt's
style engine, which permits developers and artists to create their
own widget designs. KDE 2.0 ships with over 14 of these styles,
some of which emulate the look of various operating systems, and additionally
does an excellent job ofimporting themes
from GTK and GNOME. Other configuration options permit users to: choose among
icon themes and system sounds (using a simple drop-and-replace approach);
configure key bindings; select from over 30 languages; customize toolbar
layouts and entries and menu composition; employ single-click or double-click
to activate desktop items; navigate the desktop using a keyboard
instead of a mouse; and much, much more. Moreover, KDE 2 fully
supports Unicode and KHTML is the only free HTML rendering engine on
Linux/X11 that features nascent support for BiDi scripts
such as Arabic and Hebrew.

DCOP is a client-to-client communications
protocol intermediated by a
server over the standard X11 ICE library. The protocol supports both
message passing and remote procedure calls using an XML-RPC to DCOP "gateway".
Bindings for C, C++ and Python, as well as experimental Java bindings, are
available.

KIO implements application I/O in a separate
process to enable a
non-blocking GUI without the use of threads. The class is network transparent
and hence can be used seamlessly to access HTTP, FTP, POP, IMAP,
NFS, SMB, LDAP and local files. Moreover, its modular
and extensible design permits developers to "drop in" additional protocols,
such as WebDAV, which will then automatically be available to all KDE
applications. KIO also implements a trader which can locate handlers
for specified mimetypes; these handlers can then be embedded within
the requesting application using the KParts technology.

KParts, KDE 2's component object model, allows
an application to embed another within itself. The technology handles
all aspects of the embedding, such as positioning toolbars and inserting
the proper menus when the embedded component is activated or deactivated.
KParts can also interface with the KIO trader to locate available handlers for
specific mimetypes or services/protocols.
This technology is used extensively by the KOffice suite and
Konqueror.

The XML GUI employs XML to create and position
menus, toolbars and possibly
other aspects of the GUI. This technology offers developers and users
the advantage of simplified configurability of these user interface elements
across applications and automatic compliance with theKDE Standards
and Style Guide irrespective of modifications to the standards.

KHTML is an HTML 4.0 compliant rendering
and drawing engine. The class
will support the full gamut of current Internet technologies, including
JavaScriptTM, Java®, HTML 4.0, CSS-2
(Cascading Style Sheets), SSL (Secure Socket Layer for secure communications)
and Netscape Communicator® plugins (for
viewing FlashTM,
RealAudioTM, RealVideoTM and similar technologies).
The KHTML class can easily
be used by an application as either a widget (using normal X Window
parenting) or as a component (using the KParts technology).
KHTML, in turn, has the capacity to embed components within itself
using the KParts technology.

Some distributors choose to provide binary packages of KDE for certain
versions of their distribution. Some of these binary packages for Kopernicus
will be available for free download underhttp://ftp.kde.org/stable/2.0/distribution/
or under the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp servermirrors. Please note that the
KDE team is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third
parties -- typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant
distribution.

Kopernicus requires qt-2.2.1, the free version of which is available
from the above locations usually under the name qt-x11-2.2.1. Kopernicus
will not work with older versions of Qt.

Please check the servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other
distributions. More binary packages will become available over the
coming days and weeks.

About KDE

KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers
worldwide to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environmentemploying a component-based, network-transparent architecture.
KDE is working proof of the power of the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software
development model to create first-rate technologies on par with
and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

all i can is SWEET! i know you kde guys got a little bit of crap for delaying it last week, but i'm glad to see that you decided to wait...just goes to show that you care about what realy matters, qualty code, not shoving crap out the door! i just want to say thanks, i don't know how you do it, but thanks! this is great! :)

I've got Redhat 6.0.
Your solution is to compile the source yourself.
It'll take about a day to do it.
I did the Release Candidate 2.
So far, I have only discovered one bug. The screen saver setup screen does not work properly - on the blank screen seems to work and not the other screen savers.
THANKS TO ALL OF THE KDE DEVELOPERS FOR A GREAT JOB.

From all of us ungrateful slobs who are always
petering you for more rpms/debs/tgzs etc., THANKS!
We really appreciate it, we just don't how to say
it. Now if we can only leave you in relative peace
so KDE 2.0.1 can be out by the next millenium...:)

Allthough there are not that many sensitive oppinions here, you should be carefull to publish IRC-channel content. People may acctually sue you for exposeing their privacy(like tapping a phone-conferance). Not that I think any of those will, just a reminder...

KDE will always be the best!
I am very proud that I am KDE user and that I encouraged my friends to use KDE.

Thank you guys for not giving up. You won the users and the support of free open source community. Now hope that soon or latar Gnome and others will join KDE, in order to unite and cooperate the free open source forces.

We are with you, you prove your selfs and won the first battle, many non-KDE users will now join you. Next battle is to won Gnome and others to join the KDE and unite in power free open source alliance which will destroy the EMPIRE.

I am dying since yesterday to waiting the official announcement of KDE2 release. I check dot.news and kde.org homepage so many time, but could not find it. FINALLY, IT's HERE....
WOW, what a feeling to see that it is officially HERE. Thanks for the great work. Someday I will help KDE, but now I don't have enough skill.

Yesterday..I went so crazy as to press the reload button everytime, hoping the release announcement would be there...Finally it here..I always wonder how such wonderful things can be given away for free but thats what the movement is all about..KDE is the excellent piece of software..Thanks to Mathias for leading the team in such an effective manner and all the developers,documentors and translators who have made this possible..KDE will surely KONQUER Windows

I've just seen many screenshots and the slide show you are referencing in your announcement, but I must say that KDE2 seems to be a milestone in Unix (especially Linux) Desktops. THANKS A LOT KDE-TEAM FOR THAT GREAT PIECE OF SOFTWARE! I'm sure, that people, like me, who were not involved in programming that masterpiece, couldn't even estimate how much work it was to release KDE2!

THANKS AGAIN! I hope, that many Linux distributors will support the KDE project and its team (financially)!!

Now! Make sure you have someone in San Francisco to go lobbying with the Big Irons. Seriously!

No matter how good your product is, without efficient PR it will not survive. Look at a geek company like Ericsson vs the marketing oriented Nokia. Nokia makes $1,500,000,000 in revenue on cellulars alone, whereas Ericsson makes a loss.

Don't be like Ericsson when it comes to marketing, please! It will never be enough with a superior product.

Go get yourselves a nice, but politically correct scandal (who is willing to have perverted sex with some Hollywood Star? Pamela andersson, anyone?). Use the tabloids (and I don't mean www.theregister.co.uk ...) to your advantage (and I don't mean the tabloids of Belgium, Poland, or Norway). Go for the Big! New York, London, Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc.

Well, I don't think that Ericsson is the "geek" company, and Nokia is the "marketing" company. The reason why Nokia does so well, is because they make the kind of phones people want. If you want to talk about geek-phones.... Well, Nokia had the worlds first phone/PDA-hybrid in 1996 (if I remember correctly), Ericsson just released their first phone/PDA. Nokia also had the worlds first WAP-phone. Only thing Ericsson has that Nokia doesn't have, is the plug-in MP3 accessory for mobile phone.

I'm interested to know about other people's experience of installing KDE 2.0 from the SuSE 6.4 and 7.0 i386 RPMs. If anyone doing either of these particular installs has any problems with the installation or with starting and logging in via KDE 2.0, please let the SuSE packager know, but could you also post your experience to either the suse-linux-e or the kde-user mailing list, or even (as a last resort) here. Your problem may be with the RPMs themselves, or with the documentation for the installation process.

As stated above "the KDE team is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties" but someone has to report problems, so that these third parties can fix them.

the SuSE 7.0 rpms work smoothly. No warnings, no errors. The only question remaining is if they were built without the QT-Exceptions (which should make KDE2 a lot faster as discussed on ./ or the mailing list). I am working with old hardware Pentium 133 and need every kind of speed-up I can get.

However, KDE 2 runs really fast (faster than KDE1) on old hardware (given 'enough' memory i.e. 80 MB in my case). Thanks a lot for the good work.

Congratulations to all KDE developers (we must not forget Thorsten & Mosfet for their contribution to KDE look'n'feel). KDE2 is not only a great desktop environment, it is a great platform for further development. I am sure that within 6 months we will see many contributions from non-core KDE developers. Opera is going QT,
what's next...?

Congratulations to all of you who have worked very hard with this relase the last months!

As a Mandrake 7.1 owner I was wondering wether there are and 7.1 RPM:s anywhere? The KDE mirrors do carry RPM:s, but only for 7.2. The small README that can be downloaded says I can use the RPM:s on other distros too (I presume he means older Mandrakes), but "I need to upgrade 4 packages and probably a few others too". Well, I started on the upgrading of the 4 packages, and it all boils down to a complete system upgrade, with a new version of glibc, rpm and everything. Not something I want to do to a stable system.

I hope MandrakeSoft plans to support their current distributions too, as 7.2 is not even out yet. I don't want to run 7.2 just to get KDE2, as my last attempt at getting 7.2 installed resulted in a system that hardly even booted...

Can I rebuild the packages myself from the src RPM:s on a 7.1? I could try of course, but if someone has better knowledge I could save the needed hours of compilation! :-)

glibc was fine (if you upgraded when the security alert came out... its only a few rpms and they don't do anything bad), but RPM needed to be upgraded, along with another half dozen or packages. (just upgrade RPM to figure out which ones =)

I also run Mandrake 7.1 and am reluctant to upgrade just yet. I guess it is too much to expect the KDE maintainers themselves to provide Mandrake 7.1 RPMs. I am slightly bewildered that Mandrake look like they won't, especially as 7.2 isn't even out yet. Is there any chance of someone who knows what they are doing (i.e. not me) providing 7.1 RPMs?---Or, failing that, is there any chance of someone giving step by step instructions about how to install from source. Ideally this would need to include instructions on whether the installation should overwrite KDE1 or not, and also how to make any changes to kdm and gdm (I use the latter) that are needed.

In Mandrake KDE is so integral to the distribution that I really would prefer to install KDE2 from RPMs, and ideally one's provided by Mandrake.

I'm currently running Mandrake 7.1 with kde2. It was a bit of a struggle to get it working, and in fact, a big part still doesn't work. But I'll tell you what I did anyway:

Download the mandrake 7.2 rpms. I currently have the following installed:
kdesupport-2.0-1mdk
kdelibs-sound-2.0-2mdk
kdelibs-2.0-2mdk
kdebase-2.0-1mdk
which is the minimum necessary to run kde (as far as i could tell).
Also download the latest qt1 and qt2 rpms (from rpmfind or another cooker mirror).

Now install all your rpms. I'd probably do qt 1 and 2 first and then the kde stuff.

Ok, now if your system is anything like mine, kdm will crash on startup. I have no idea why. Just live without it. Use gdm or xdm or just plain old startx. Right now, I'm living with gdm. Select a KDE session type and it should work just fine.

Once you get stuff working, you can install the devel rpms and the extra stuff (which is mostly unnecessary anyway).

Extra packages that you should get: htdig, menudrake, Mandrake Cooker's latest version of rpm (3.0.5, not 4.0, BTW), and--get this--Lesstif. Yes, Lesstif. The kdebase RPM from Mandrake has a dependency on the file libXm.so.1, a.k.a. Motif. I think this has to do with Netscape plugins in Konqueror or something.

And make sure to get the latest version of pam from Mandrake Cooker, which should hopefully get kdm to work. (kdm works on my system; I know that much.)

Thanks for the advice. I followed it and am now posting this from Konqueror. However, there are a couple of things not quite working ... does anyone have any advice?

In order to install kdebase I had to install mandrake_desk and now
the only option available in either kdm or gdm is kde. I no longer
have the option of starting GNOME, WindowMaker, BlackBox,
Enlightenment, etc. This is a big problem for me. I use GNOME as my
regular desktop---kde is something I use only about one third of the
time in fact, although with kde2 that may ver well change. I also fairly
regularly start a vanilla X session with just Blackbox, or bask in
the visual glory that is WindowMaker. Can anyone offer any advice as
to what I need to tweak or install to get kdm and gdm back to
offering the full range of installed options?

I am still using XFree86 3.3.6. kdemultimedia appears to require
XFree86 4.0.1 (well, it says it requires libXaw.so.7 and
XFree86-libs-4.0.1 seems to be its home). I have tried previously
using XFree86 4 and it was not a happy experience for me so I'm
stuck with 3.3.6. What would anyone recommend I do to get
kdemultimedia installed? Is compiling from source my only option,
or is there an rpm which does not depend on libXaw.so.7? If I
install from source, can anyone advise on the configure options for
maximum compatability with the kde2 rpms?

I am using Mandrake 7.1 with all security updates installed, the
latest version of Helix GNOME (including all most recent updates), and
the kde2 rpms downloaded from the Mandrake 7.2beta ftp site.

I have solved the first problem. It seems that the installation of one of the
packages (mandrake_desk?) deleted /etc/X11/window-managers. Thankfully I
had a backup, restored it, moved /etc/X11/wmsession.d/, and ran
convertsession and it built all the correct entries in
/etc/X11/wmsession.d/. Now both kdm and gdm work.

I did not see any readme file or any information anywhere about which system(s) the mandrake rpms work for. (except that they claim to be for the UNRELEASED 7.2)
I'm in the middle of my download, should I just stop it now and forget all about kde 2?
or are there some other rpms that I can use?

(also, people say that the rpms will overwrite KDE 1, if so that is just PLAIN STUPID!!!)

Well, you could use the generic version of KDE 2.0 at ftp.kde.org, or you could try one of the Redhat-versions, if Mandrake doesn't release packages voor Mandrake 6.x and 7.0/7.1 KDE is not responsible for the packaging of third party packagers, so contact Mandrake for more details.
If KDE 2.0. overwrites KDE 1.x, you could prefent it by using the prefix option of RPM or your compiler...